Flat eyes
by Holly of the Night
Summary: Two cats meet, but neither understand the other. One raised by Koalas, the other a loner


**A Trained for a Different Species Challenge Prompt 1,047 words  
**

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What an odd creature.

Tallfern clung to the side of a long beach tree with long sharp claws. He stared dully at the strange creature huddled in a cluster of ferns. Tallfern temporarily forgot about the creature as his mouth worked in slow thoughtful chews. It was some very delicious leaves his friends found for him. The more delicious in the forest.

Tallfern loved his family and friends. The Koalas were a very relaxed and peaceful species. They often lolled on trees, hunting for the tastiest leaves and conversing about the day's activities they witnessed.

One group had found a group of dogs herding through the forest with a colorful creature that walked on two legs; a Noclaws. The dogs had scented Thistle while he he had been walking on the ground to get to another tree; he never stood a chance.

It had been a very mournful day. Tallfern's memory of Thistle was slight, but he bowed his head like the others as Thistle's familys' sorrow flowed through each of them, touching their hearts.

Every Koala was family to another. Without family, they wouldn't survive.

Except Tallfern.

It was strange. While on the ground floor he could escape dogs and foxes. It wasn't easy, but he managed to claw up the tree before they could wrap their sharp fangs around his flesh. It frightened him, but he was glad to be alive. The other Koalas thought it was his mutation. He looked different. He acted different. But Tallfern felt the same. His parents told him so.

They said they found him huddled in a small nest, alone and cold. Tallfern didn't know what a nest was. He assumed it was some sort of branch. They told him he kept mewling something about stars, but they couldn't understand what that meant. So Tallfern assumed his mother abandoned him because he looked different, and settled it as that.

Until he witnessed an odd creature. In fact, it was so odd it looked just like Tallfern!

Still, it could be dangerous. Tallfern had no idea.

So he stared with blank eyes at a four-legged thing, waiting for it to do something. The sun was setting at a slow crawl to sleep away the night. The purple and red lights colored the creature and grass. It had a slim reddish brown body with small ears that twitched nonstop. Its eyes, deep blue, stared warily about.

Could it be a Koala too?

But no, that couldn't be. Tallfern flared his nostrils. Yes, what struck him was that this creature didn't smell like the other Koalas. It smelled just like Tallfern himself. Yet that couldn't be possible. After all, Tallfern's a Koala. Not this thing.

Slowly, claw by claw, he lowered himself further down the branch. The creature beneath Tallfern's tree suddenly looked up. For a long moment they stared at one another. Tallfern watched curiously at the creature's wary eyes rove over his body. It opened its mouth and mewed strange sounds.

Tallfern blinked stupidly. What was it telling him? He tilted his head to the side and rumbled, "You're an odd thing. Where did you come from?"

The creature looked startled. It stiffened and glanced around the thick trees. Tallfern followed its gaze and felt his heart flutter.

Oh, look! Tallfern's family arrived. Koala's everywhere. They perched on branches and munched on leaves. The young hung onto their mothers' back and others hung sleeping on their trees, snoring softly. Some, like Tallfern, observed the strange creature curiously. Others ignored it entirely.

There was a rustle above Tallfern. A thick gray Koala climbed slowly from the other side of the thin tree. It was Tallfern's mother. Leechseed regarded the stranger with the same curiosity.

"It looks like you," she rumbled.

Tallfern nodded. "Is it kin?"

Leechseed shrugged.

Tallfern looked back down. The creature vanished. He looked around quickly.

"I wish we could have played," he said.

Leechseed was already climbing back up the tree. Tallfern followed her, hoping to find some more juicy leaves.

[-]

Pigeon could not believe what he just saw. He had to mentally pinch himself on the arm just to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him; sometimes he went overboard with the dirty water.

A cat, talking like one of those Koalas?

He stared slack-jawed at the gray and white tom. He a skinny tom. So skinny Pigeon wondered if prey was that difficult to find here. This cat was just chewing leaves and peering at Pigeon with faint curiosity. No alert, no hunger in its eyes. That cat must smell the mouse he just ate; it was recent.

But either his nostrils were stuffed or he just didn't care. The gray and white tom hardly bated an ear as one of the Koalas descended beside the white and gray tom. She took to staring at Pigeon with the same half-interested stare too.

Pigeon lowered himself in the ferns as if hoping the grass could swallow him and take him away from this place.

The Koala rumbled something under its breath. The cat replied under the same strange language, albiet with a higher pitch. They never took their gazes off Pigeon. It was really making him uncomfortable.

What were they saying? The red tom glanced warily through the ferns around him. He nearly jumped out of his fur.

Koalas everywhere! All those beady eyes stared unblinkingly at him. What in the Skies above was going on here?! Were they waiting for something? He looked over his shoulder uneasily. He didn't want to care about that cat up the tree, or the fact the Koalas were staring at him like he just grew two heads. He only came here for a slice of his own territory.

But apparently it belonged to this cat and his Koala buddies.

No, Pigeon was not a fighter. He used his wits. And right now it was telling him something was wrong here, if a cat was willing to stay up that tree half-starved.

He fled after the setting sun. To a better place, a safer place without Koalas.

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**Really dull, yeah. B ut I tried XD**


End file.
